Top 10 Board Games to Start A Collection With 

Fun list. These top ten are always great. To help validate Star Wars rebellion, I don’t think “heavier” games should be excluded from a top first ten games. Pandemic got me in the hobby it was my first hobby game purchase. Alhambra was my second game, takenoko was my third, Le Havre was my fourth, Troyes was my fifth…so on and so forth. My point is I really don’t think most people need ten games to introduce them to the hobby … one or two “light” games would suffice as stepping stones to games with a greater decision space.

My 10 are; 10: Stone Age (My worker placement game to start people on) 9: Splendor (Just simple collecting and point gaining) 8: Parks(Can kind of depend on your group, but it went very well in mine) 7: 7 Wonders (Still one of my favorite drafting games) 6: Catan (I feel it's the main gateway into heavier games) 5: Terraforming Mars(Time to get a heavy big game. I don't own it because my friend does, but I would if he didn't) 4: Dominion (Not my favorite deck-building game, but I still will play it every time) 3: Carcassonne (Tile laying with some sort of worker placement) 2: Sentinels of the Multiverse (Co-op with asymmetrical characters) 1: Ticket to Ride(Either original or europe, both are easy to play and i even taught it to my grandma which she loves it) I know my list is pretty light in terms of complexity but I feel like starting out you should feel out your group and putting in themes that they will like(IPs and something like space or fantasy) just depends. These are just my ten that get played the most in our group. Some of the games I want from this list are; Ready Set Bet, it looks so fun and I can see my group going nuts playing it. Dice Forge, It's been on my wishlist for a while, we have just been enjoying the games I already have. Heat, I have always wanted to add a racing game in my collection and that just looks so good and I'm hoping that it's not from the hype.

Great job guys. Always entertaining & fun!

great job,thank you🎉

What an awesome collection. Really enjoyed this vid! Interesting selection and great dialogue. I’m thinking about jump-starting my adult son’s collection and this is just chock full of ideas. Well done!

Stone Age for worker placement, Vikings Gone Wild for deck building, Patchwork for 2 player, Rear Window for deduction, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Codenames, Sushi Roll, Cat in the Box, My Little Scythe, Space Base.

Also, awesome backdrop and podcast setup, subbed

Catan rocks! Also just picked up Seafarers. Risk and Ticket to ride are great as well

Dice forge is a must own in my collection!

2 of my friends own Chtulhu Wars and I love it so much. I haven't tried Anhk. After seeing you guys talk about it and compare it to CW, I really want to try it.

Just found your channel. Super cool. I highly enjoyed the lists. In terms of party games, my go-to games are Bang!, Super Fight, and Munchkin. Any of those are always a hit. For bigger groups, The Great Dalmuti is also super fun. I'm surprised that none of the Legendary games got any love from a deck-building perspective (my wife and I are huge fans of the Alien version). For those who love co-op deck-builders, I highly recommend Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle. Even if you're not a fan of the IP, the game design is fantastic and the components are high quality. :)

I enjoyed your video and like your list with a more modern approach to start a collection. For me the core games in every collection are a bit older and more classical ones: 10. Wizard (1984) 9. Dominion (2008) 8. Lost Cities (1999) 7. Splendor (2014) 6. Stone Age (2008) 5. 7 Wonders (2010) 4. Pandemic (2008) 3. The Castles of Burgundy (2011) 2. Carcasonne (2000) 1. Catan (1995) Greetings from Europe :)

My personal number 1 must have is Dune: Imperium. I can't see myself having a boardgame collection without it.

Great video. A single criticism that'll have me turn to your videos a lot more is if you'd also include the actual game footage. Pictures, plays, what have you.

I like the honorable mentions a lot. I would add 2, Camel Up. It is really easy to grasp, and I like the gimmick of camels on top. The other one is Coup, it is short and it accommodates up to 10 people with expansion.

I am going to cheat by combining all 3 of the Century games together as one. This gives multiple Euro style games together as one entry.

Some of these are kinda expensive! Akin to honorable mentions - if Hitler is not your thing - an alternative social deduction is a new one by Facade Games: Hollywood 1947. (I am not receiving royalties for mentioning this!) 🙂 No one "dies" (eliminated); however, it is still comrades v patriots. Easy to learn worker placement: Architects of the West Kingdom (or Raiders of the North Sea).

I started with: Carcassonne Catan, and Ticket to Ride I also just bought Azul

Star Wars rebellion. One of my first games, however I didn't know how to play board games with lots of rules.. it was a struggle to both learn the game and teach the wife. I still own it, still love it, I have to say though that maybe that wasn't the best first game. Milage may vary though! I had to ease us into board games slowly..

Been boardgames pretty seriously for about 7 years. Just played Catan a month ago.

I need to play Lords of Waterdeep again. I miss it.

Nice video... For starter collection I might say... Co-op: Pandemic or Horrified Worker placement: Tenpenny Parks or Architects of the West Kingdom Engine building: I would say Distilled (or Liquor-Span as I call it 😅) or maybe Gizmos over splendor Maybe 7 Wonders architects or Between two cities (good light strategy for a group) Maybe Ticket to Ride or Takenoko Tile laying: Cascadia over Carcassonne (Plant unknown is good but expensive and hard to find sometimes) Social deduction: Deception Murder in Hong Kong (pretty much the only social deduction game I will play) I've gotten alot of bang for my buck out of 5 minute dungeon, Railroad inc, The Mind, Jaipur, Herbaceous, and Just One as quick cheap fillers.

This was a good list. Some of the games I agree and some were like "really"? But it's your list. I was waiting for someone to say Splendor, so Yes (!) to that one. Though, I have not played Splendor Duel and I should since I mostly play it with just 2 players. I understand that some choices were gateway- medium because simple games can get repetitive, so you might want to introduce something with a challenge. Before I talk about the games I got all almost 10 years ago. I do want to say that Shards of Infinity, doesn't get much love and I'm glad it was on someone's list. Thou I do have Star Realms (which would be an excellent intro to a new gamer), Shards plays so much better. You can split an attack and you get to use a card's ability (now) when buying it. But, here are the games I bought for my family when starting this trek. Ticket to Ride (which I did sell recently, I want to get Europe), Spendor, Dominion, Small World, Sushi Go Party. And for my daughter who play this game at a house we rented for a week that she liked, Pit Wits (like Apples to Apples). So, If I started this hobby today, I would choose a different games. That list I would have to think about, there are so many good gateway games.

I live in northern Indiana. If you ever need another player let me know, we have similar taste in games!

I think people who say they don’t like Wingspan are kinda just… haters. I say this cuz I was that guy. I had to play it two weeks in a row at a meetup I had just joined and I lost both times and I was disappointed about how not thematic the game was. But knowing that it gets played so much I decided to play it more on BGA. Now I really really like the game. It’s an engine builder and it’s beautiful and the components are great.

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Star wars rebellion is to heavy for a first board game.

lol Taverns, Rebellion and Ankh in first board game recommendations. Dude is so out of touch

I hardly disagree with the notion of "gateway games". To me a what is a good gateway game depends on each person. The most important thing is that game thematic interest the person. And different persons will handle different levels of complexity. I and a lot of my friends would NEVER become hooked on board games if we started with simple games. Our gateway was Game of Thrones hehe